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Osama bin Laden was a Muslim terrorist and the founder of al-Qaeda, an Islamic terrorist organization. In conjunction with several other Islamic leaders, he issued two fatwas—in 1996 and then again in 1998—that Muslims should fight those that either support Israel or support Western military forces in Islamic countries, stating that those in that mindset are the enemy, including citizens from the United States and allied countries. His goal was for Western military forces to withdraw from the Middle East and for foreign aid to Israel to cease as it reflected negatively on Palestinians. Bin Laden's ideological guides have proven to be Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, and Sayyid Qutb. Although perceptions to the contrary abound, bin Laden has not been influenced greatly by Ibn Abd al-Wahhab or the Wahhabi school of thought, and he is not a good example of contemporary Wahhabi Islam as practiced in Saudi Arabia.[4] He subscribed to the Athari (literalist) school of Islamic theology.

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1Sahil Badruddin = ""The attacks of September 11 were not a defensive strike against a specific act of aggression against Islam. They were never sanctioned by a qualified mujtahid. They made no differentiation between combatant and non-combatant. And they indiscriminately killed women, children, and approximately two hundred Muslims on the ground and in the towers. In other words, they fell far short of the regulations imposed by Muhammad for a legitimate jihadi response (p. 107)."-No god but God, Reza Aslan "